ught to so many people that
they had great difficulty gettin' a party together to hunt for her that
day as she turned up missin' on a'count of bein' down in the well.

"While we was talkin'--Mrs. Macy 'n' me--up Gran'ma Mullins come 'n' it
turned out from her as we was all three expected to squeeze over to
Meadville on Mr. Jilkins's back seat together. Mrs. Macy 'n' me was far
from pleased at that prospeck, 'n' Gran'ma Mullins did n't look over
rejoiced herself. There is them as can wedge, 'n' them as can't, 'n' we
was all three the kind as can't. I ain't as wide as Mrs. Macy, nor yet
the soft and squashy kind like Gran'ma Mullins, but I will say, Mrs.
Lathrop, as bein' overflowed around for sixteen miles, is to my order o'
thinkin' full as tryin' as to be overflowin' aroun' somebody else."

"I--" said Mrs. Lathrop, mildly.

"No, you would n't either," said Susan, "I know you better 'n you know
yourself, Mrs. Lathrop, for I know you asleep 'n' awake, 'n' you only
know yourself awake; not as asleep 'n' awake is n't very much the same
thing with you, Mrs. Lathrop; but asleep or awake, the main fact is as I
know most, so you can just keep still till I get done with what I 'm
sayin'."

Mrs. Lathrop kept still.

"Well, after it was settled as, willy-nilly, we'd got to back-seat it to
Meadville together, Gran'ma Mullins begin about what a very superior man
Rufus was 'n' what a very superior boy he used to be. Mrs. Macy did n't
say nothin', 'cause it was easy to see as she 'd really took it a good
deal to heart bein' thirded for sixteen miles; but Gran'ma Mullins went
right on with when she lived in Meadville 'n' taught school that winter
she was seventeen. She said as Rufus was in her middle class that winter
'n' _mos_' superior. He was nine 'n' the oldest o' nine, there bein' two
pairs o' twins; she said it looked like Tabitha 'n' Sammy had took the
Bible about replenishin' the earth right on to their own shoulders.
Gran'ma Mullins said it was suthin' to make any one content to teach
school forever, only to look at 'em; she said she should always think it
was that as made all the men in Meadville so ready to go to the war 'n'
the women so calm over their gettin' killed; she said no one wanted to
get married there, anyhow."

"But she--" interposed Mrs. Lathrop, quickly.

"Well, but she knew he had a bullet in him 'n the Roman fever 'n' a
pension," said Susan, "she knowed she was pretty safe--I would n't blame
her unde